1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gene expression regulatory DNA which regulates gene expression within plant cells, and especially to that derived from the barley D-hordein gene.
2. Description of the Related Art
In seeds of barley (Hordeum vulgare), a variety of proteins specifically expressed in seeds (seed storage proteins) are present in large quantities, 35.about.55% of which are comprised of hordein soluble in alcohol (Shewry, Barley: Chemistry and Technology, pp. 164: American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc., 1993).
This hordein is classified into four types, B, C, D, and .gamma. based on the genes, loci on chromosome, amino acid sequences, etc. Among them, cDNAs and genomic DNAs of B, C, and .gamma. were isolated and these structural genes and their expression regulatory DNAs have been elucidated.
On the other hand, although cDNA comprising the entire translational region of D-hordein was isolated (Hirota et al., DDBJ, D82941, 1996) and analyzed for its structure, only a partial translational region of its genomic DNA was identified and the 5'-upstream region was found to be relatively short (Sorensen et al., Mol. Genet., 250, 750-760, 1996).
However, although the DNA base sequence of said 5'-upstream region was actually short, composed of 436 bp, this region was qualitatively confirmed to have a promoter activity based on particle bombardment analysis.
The present inventors have carefully studied the Dhordein gene to find the presence of a gene expression regulatory region upstream from the promoter region regulating the expression of D-hordein.
The present invention aims at providing a gene expression regulatory DNA comprised of a promoter region promoting the expression of D-hordein gene and a regulatory region to regulate the expression promoted by said promotor region. In addition, the present invention aims at providing an expression cassette and vector for expressing a desired gene under the regulation of said expression regulatory DNA by utilizing it.
Furthermore, the present invention aims at providing a transgenic plant, a new cultivar, transferred with said expression cassette or said expression vector.